Summary: To study the regulatory effect of acute and chronic insulin treatment on insulin post-re-ceptor signaling transduction pathway in a human hepatoma cell line (Hep G2), Hep G2 cells wereincubated in the presence or absence of insulin with different concentrations in serum free mediafor 16 h and then stimulated with 100 nmol/L insulin for 1 min. Protein levels of insulin receptorβ-subunit (IRβ), insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) and p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) were determined in total cell lysates by Western-immunoblot. Phosphorylat-ed proteins IRβ, IRS-1 and interaction of PI 3-kinase with IRS-1 were determined by immunopre-cipitation. Results showed that 1-min insulin stimulation rapidly induced tyrosine phosphorylationof IRβ and IRS-l, which in turn, resulting in association of PI 3-kinase with IRS-1. 1-100 nmol/L chronic insulin treatment induced a dose-dependent decrease in the protein level of IRβ and aslight decrease in the protein level of IRS-1. There wass more marked reduction in the phospho-rylation of IRβ, IRS-1, reaching a nadir of 22 % (P＜0. 01) and 15 % (P＜0. 01) of control lev-els, respectively, after 16 h treatment with 100 nmol/L insulin. The association between IRS-1and PI 3-kinase was decreased by 66 % (P＜0. 01). There was no significant change in PI 3-ki-nase protein levels. These data suggest that chronic insulin treatment can induce alterations ofIRβ, IRS-1 and PI 3-kinase three early steps in insulin action, which contributes significantly toinsulin resistance, and may account for desensitization of insulin action.